Working Paper Series, Swedish Institute for Social Research, Stockholm University

No 7/2004: Universities in the regional economy. Evidence from Swedish employer-employee linked data.

Helena Persson () and Håkan Regnér ()

Abstract: This study uses employer-employee linked data on all
Swedish firms to analyze the impact of a college on the local economy. It
focuses on colleges established in the 1970s and measures the effects 20
years after the establishment. The results show that there are no
significant effects on survival rate of establishments, overall employment
growth, overall growth of college graduates or employment growth in OECD
defined high-tech industries. The results do not support the political
motives behind the establishment and they reject the hypothesis of large
regional spillovers from a college. But it is also possible that it takes
more than 20 years before a university has a significant impact on regional
development.

Before downloading any of the electronic versions below
you should read our statement on
copyright.
Download GhostScript
for viewing Postscript files and the
Acrobat Reader for viewing and printing pdf files.